Are you thinking about going abroad for either your Masters or your PhD?
This is the exact classroom where I took my very first university class at the
University of British Columbia.
This is where I sat every single class right in the front row where I can see
the professor, where I can interact, where I can raise my hand and ask questions.
I studied biochemistry here at UBC and at the time I chose biochemistry because
all my friends were doing it. After a second year,
we were required to choose our major and all my friends did it and so I just
went along.
So I went into biochemistry and in my senior year and my fourth year was when I
had this opportunity
to work in a laboratory where I was doing research and I was basically working
alongside other PhD students
and I had an opportunity to write an Undergrad dissertation.
It was my first foray into research and into biomedical research,
and into writing and analyzing data,
into using microscopes and really seeing research,
cutting edge research.
It was at that moment where I had my first exposure also,
into neuroscience and it really seeded my interest in the field.
So I wanted to pursue my Master's degree and that was when I started to look
into opportunities
to go abroad and study my Master's degree.
In my research Edinburgh started to pop up as something
that I would be deeply interested in. Keep in mind back then,
I was 21 - 22 and I really had no experience going abroad.
I had no experience going that far, I should say, on my own.
And I knew nobody in the UK, never been there before, no friends, no family,
no connections. But I did know one thing,
was that that university, Edinburgh University, was where I ended up going,
but that university had a really strong reputation for neuroscience.
Going abroad, choosing to go abroad, and going to Edinburgh,
was one of the most important decisions
I was going to make at the time for my career. And one thing that it did for me,
that is, going abroad,
one thing that it did for me was it really strengthened my own resolve for my
career. Because when I got there it was a completely different environment and
I was completely outside of my comfort zone.
As an Asian student going in a
predominantly non-Asian, predominantly Caucasian culture,
I was really outside of my comfort zone there on the social level.
But also on the intellectual level, the way they do things abroad is
very different from what I was exposed to during my Undergrad,
during my lab research experience here as well. And that exposure,
that extra learning curve to do things differently really strengthened
my resolve in my career and it really demonstrated that I'm willing to take
risks, that I'm willing to go outside of my comfort zone.
And so when I got back,
it was an opportunity that I could bring back with me,
the new learnings from international connections that I made abroad,
new ways of doing things,
new ways of thinking and new ways of communicating with each other and their
definition of productivity was very different as well.
So I brought back everything I learned with me.
So the second thing that studying abroad did for me and my career was that it
really broadened my perspectives on business and education. As I mentioned before,
being abroad, the way
universities run is very different from your home country. They have different,
of course they have different expectations, they have different curricula,
the requirements are different for graduation
and for final defense and the way exams are delivered as well.
So the focus on education is very different.
The values on education is different as well.
And that perspective, that broadened perspective,
really allowed me to push myself and to really bring out my fullest potential.
Doing my Master's degree abroad also really broadened my network.
I was able to build connections
in a new country and build relationships that later served as long term
international collaborations.
And having these global connections has served me very well in terms of my
academic reputation, although I'm not in academia anymore,
but now with social media, and social media for academics,
it really shows you who you're connected to, who you published with.
And I've found that within three degrees of separation,
my longterm connections abroad, we're connected too.
Later on, when I went to do my PhD, they were connected,
especially because I stayed in the same field of neuroscience.
So another thing that studying abroad really helped me in my career was that it
really helped
me to boost my morale and my work ethic,
because it's as an international student, I go there outside of my comfort zone,
and there's actually a steeper learning curve in some ways because you're
learning a new culture,
you're adopting to a new environment and you're being resourceful.
When I to Edinburgh, at that time,
the Canadian dollar to UK dollar was 2.4,
so I had to be resourceful to come up with funds to support my own education,
and my tuition and my living costs as well. So all of that combined,
all the newness of it, the learning curve of it,
and just trying to fit in and make connections in a new culture
where you don't know what the social norms are,
it really helped to build my work ethic
and to be stronger in my resolve for my own career and my own personal
development.
Most importantly,
my decision to go abroad to do my Master's degree really helped me
to develop mature decision making skills.
And first it was the deciding on where to live, where to go to school,
what geographic location, and of course, within that geographical location
I'm choosing which school, which department do I want to be a part of?
Which supervisor is best for me that aligns with my values.
What type of project do I want to be working on?
What aspect of neuroscience am I interested in.
So all of these decisions are really important because it is time, money, energy,
that I'm putting into for the next year.
And it really helped me to be more mature
and more decisive and committed in my decision making. And on top of all that,
it is the satisfaction
of knowing that I did all of that successfully and on my own.
Comment below, are you studying abroad? Are you thinking about studying?
Is it for your Master's degree? Comment below, where are you considering studying?
Any questions you have of studying abroad?
Put in the comments below and look forward to that.
And maybe I'll answer your question in my next video.
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